Barry George to seek new compensation payout

Barry George, the man cleared of killing BBC presenter
Jill Dando after evidence was called into question, is to make a new compensation claim, his lawyer has said.

Cleared: Barry George

The 51-year-old has already had a Â£1.4million claim turned down. But he was given new hope by the Supreme Court setting a new miscarriage of justice âtestâ in appeals by three men who said they were wrongly refused compensation when their murder convictions were overturned.

Judges ruled a miscarriage now occurs when a new fact so undermined prosecution evidence that no conviction could âpossibly be based on itâ.

âWe are encouraged by the ruling,â said Mr Georgeâs solicitor Nicholas Baird. âWe will be writing to justice secretary Ken Clarke and asking him to reconsider Barry Georgeâs claim.â

Mr George had been convicted of the murder of Miss Dando two years after the 37-year-old was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, south-west London in 1999.

Evidence about a particle of what prosecutors said was âfirearms dischargeâ found in Mr Georgeâs coat was called into question following a review and his conviction was quashed in 2007.

Mr George, also of Fulham, was re-tried and found not guilty in 2008.

Judges also ruled in favour of Raymond McCartney and Eamonn MacDermott, both from Northern Ireland, who had convictions for murder and membership of the IRA quashed in February 2007.

They rejected a similar challenge by Andrew Adams, of Newcastle upon Tyne, who spent 14 years in jail before his murder conviction was ruled unsafe.